There is a stupid amount of media people in the New Zealand music industry. They host and attend expensive events at weird times during the week (Mondays, Tuesdays), and they fill rooms and drink bars dry. So this year we decided to start attending some of the media events that were happening in our area – we crewed up, scooped media passes, and tried to get used to how these things work (finger food, bumping shoulders, etc). The initial culture shock of the idea eventually grew into something a little more tolerable and in the end we were able to bring you write-ups on four of the most important and interesting events on the New Zealand music calendar.

Critics Choice Award – October 2011

It was an odd lineup for this year’s Critics Choice Award show with Kimbra, Popstrangers and The Unfaithful Ways being picked out of thin air to compete against each other for a $10,000 recording and music video grant, a $2000 gift voucher at the Rockshop and “mentoring from some of the finest business minds in the industry including the Music Managers Forum, Eccles Entertainment, Entertainment Accounting, McLaughlin Law and the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand”. In the end, the person who needed all that stuff the least ended up winning.

Taite Music Prize – April 2011

The Taite award, which is in its second year had nominee Dudley Benson asking a few questions. Notably, does the Taite Music Prize allow for creativity to be assessed in an acceptable way? What does this decision mean for the future of the award? And; How do the attitudes of judging panels such as this one impact the creativity of emerging New Zealand artists? He came back to us with 3000 words and it sparked dozens of replies in the comments section.

Silver Scroll Award – September 2011

Avalanche City ended up winning the Silver Scroll which was a bummer, but (as is a tradition) we were able to watch some great covers throughout the night. Cut Off Your Hands took on Delaney Davidson, Orchestra of Spheres tried out Bachelorette and Home Brew gave us the highlight of the night with their cover of UMO’s ‘Ffunny Ffrends’.

Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards – November 2011

We’ve probably said enough about this but the point is it was actually pretty fun. Please let us do it again next year.

The Going Global music summit which is being held in Auckland and Wellington will see a host of overseas delegates (incl. representatives from Matador, BBC6 and more) present seminars for artists looking to take their music overseas. There’ll also be a live music showcase featuring Zowie, The Vietnam War, Beastwars, Family Cactus and a bunch of others. Full info as follows:

DELEGATES APPEARING:

Live Music Showcase, 6pm-10:30pm: San Francisco Bath House featuring: Beastwars / Cairo Knife Fight / Glass Vaults / Iva Lamkum / The Eversons / Family Cactus

Every week, a panel of writers for The Corner will focus on a bunch of recently released local singles and grade them. We call it Great Sounds Great; Bad Sounds Bad. We might have borrowed this idea from thesinglesjukebox.com but we love that site and we hope that you like this.

[YouTube / Full Version / Beatport]

[Grade: 6.4]

Maryann Savage: The tense new wave bass at the start is great, and I adore the Kraftwerk robot-echo vocal effect. The song is too long, but I suppose it’s meant to ‘take you on a trip’ on ‘the dancefloor’, something I guess I’ll never experience. The drums are plodding, though, like a less urgent New Order. Overall, it’s nice to hear something that’s simply melancholy in 2011. [5]

Phyllis Gabor: In his rework Erol’s taken away the dizzy repetition and slow-plodding churn that I liked in the original, but he’s managed to replace them with very different elements (a dance beat and pulsing synths) that work almost as well. He gives this track a different feel and doesn’t override the original sound. I think that’s a job well done. [7]

Tim Gentles: I don’t think I’ve heard anything else that Erol Alkan has ever done. My understanding was that he was an irrelevant relic from early-2000s, 2manydjs-era electro; but this actually gets a lot of things right. Nicely minimalistic the whole way through, Erol Alkan’s remix of ‘Forever Dolphin Love’ floats along without peaking at any point, and in the process manages to pretty perfectly capture the detached wistfulness of the original Connan Mockasin track. [8]

Dan Trevarthen: I didn’t make it through the original but I am so hypnotised by this. [8]

Stevie Kaye: Erol Alkan’s always been a hard man to pin down – both the UK ground zero for electroclash with his Trash club night, but he’s also had a weirder bent, almost a one-man London DFA/Optimo – Beyond The Wizard’s Sleeve (a collaboration with Richard Norris), had some sparkling edits of 60s psych cuts like Factory’s ‘A Path Through The Forest’ and krautrock staples like Neu!’s ‘Hallogallo’, so I can see a connection to remixing Connan. I hadn’t heard the original, but I’m generally all for distinctive vocalists being put through the remix or “ft.” blender – I’ve more time for Jicka Jick’s electro remix of Joanna Newsom or Antony Hegarty stumping up for Hercules & Love Affair than either of their solo work. Alkan does a very tasteful “extended 80s 12″ mix” thing with the bassline/drums, using Connan’s vocals as rushy, amyl-friendly garnish (this is very club-smart) – it’s a bit more subdued/straight than a similar remix from, say, Ewan Pearson or Jacques Lu Cont. ‘s nice, but it’s no ‘Dolphins Into The Future’. By the way, did you know Connan’s collaboration with Fatboy Slim actually surfaced? Huh. [7]

Fraser Austin: I’ve had to start by listening to the original. Done. Ugh. The Eurythmics-esque bass line doesn’t grip me like it ought to – there’s all this other meandering crap in there like the EQ’d to discomfort vocals. Dynamically bland, the sonic equivalent of wanting to get a sandwich but being to tired to get up from the couch. Hungry, brainlazy and unsatisfied. [4]

Hussein Moses: The original was moody and lacking energy, so the psyched-out rework is accommodating. Those vocals still sound just as morose and squeaky but on this it’s boosted by a beat that compliments the song rather than cluttering it. I’m into it. [7]

Michael McClelland: Cool that Connan Mockasin has joined the ranks of Hot Chip, Daft Punk and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs with this remix by a big name dude… but for what reason? The original version is pretty dull, from what I can discern. At least this one adds a bit of life to it with some pulse, but it’s still only filling in the blanks that Mockasin’s version created. Speaking of blanks, fill in this one: You can’t polish a _____. [5]

David Dallas’ new album The Rose Tint will be available online as a free download from May 11. Check out the full tracklisting for the album below and hear the bonus track from the record, ‘Ain’t Coming Down’, featuring Boot Camp Clik rapper Buckshot right here.

01 Start Looking Round (prod. Dan “Exile” Mawby)
02 Say No More (prod. Fire & Ice)
03 Take a Picture (prod. Fire & Ice)
04 Caught in a Daze feat. Freddie Gibbs (prod. Fire & Ice)
05 Nothing to Do (With You) feat. Pieter T (prod. Fire & Ice)
06 Life Is… (Interlude) (prod. Fire & Ice)
07 Til Tomorrow (prod. Fire & Ice)
08 Ain’t Perfect f. Jordache (prod. Fire & Ice)
09 Sideline f. Che Fu (prod. by Fire & Ice)
10 Dream (prod. Nick “41” Maclaren)
11 Postcard (prod. Fire & Ice)
12 Make Up for It feat. PNC (prod. P-Money)
[Bonus] Ain’t Coming Down feat. Buckshot (prod. Fire & Ice)

Every week, a panel of writers for The Corner will focus on a bunch of recently released local singles and grade them. We call it Great Sounds Great; Bad Sounds Bad. We might have borrowed this idea from thesinglesjukebox.com but we love that site and we hope that you like this.

[Kiwi Hits / iTunes]

[Grade: 4.9]

Matthew McAuley: Okay, so this sounds like if Rihanna really liked K’Lee. Is her real name Ria? If so, why on earth didn’t she assume a nom de plume? I can’t even try and listen to this properly. It just sounds like Rihanna. That’s all there is. Rihanna with crazy flat production. Not terrible, but not any good at all. [3]

Maryann Savage: This is absolutely as good as any variation on Rihanna’s Jamaica-lite vocals over Euro swelling synths, hands in the air house music. The vocals are foregrounded in a way that renders the voice close and intimate, with a quavery uncertainty that has, perhaps, a shy NZ edge to it. But I’m clutching at straws: it’s just pure and effective pop music, a poisonous mass of opiate-of-the-call-centre-worker noises, like everything we listen to. [5]

Tim Gentles: Although somewhat in the kiwi pop-songwriting tradition of trying your hardest to make a convincing ‘homegrown’ simulacra of real/American pop, ‘Over You’ barely contains any of the usual mismatch of signifiers or not-quite-there-ness that would give it away as from here. The strings that open the track initially sound a bit clumsy in a trying to hard to be well-produced way (the first five seconds sound uncannily like Final Fantasy), but after a few listens begin to sound lush in a good way. As far as post-Rihanna R&B-pop goes, this is pretty standard fare, but is nicely produced enough and Ria has enough personality for it to stand up to repeated listens. [6]

Kim Gruschow: Ria has strong voice with an international pop sound. She gives her words Rihanna treatment and it works although the song sounds dated on the whole, and lacking in the dance deprtment. While the strings are the main thing going on they are sort of at odds with the rest of the sounds. [4]

Dan Taipua: You can stand underneath my parasol-asol-asol oh oh oh, underneath my parasol-asol-asol oh oh oh oh, oh-oh. [3]

Hussein Moses: A little background on Ria can be found here for those interested. As for the song itself, it’s a skillful take on top 40 R&B. A straightforward song with a universal topic, but it’s delivered perfectly. The verses transition into the pre-chorus/chorus without difficulty and those strings carry the introduction pretty well too.  She sounds super confident. Why isn’t there a video for this yet? Anyone know who produced it? See that – I didn’t even mention Rihanna once. [7]

Fraser Austin: Good move, make it hard for me to Google you without the RIANZ top 40 coming up. Production is phat, which is actually nice to hear in a NZ pop-gunning track. Throw it in the club and you might struggle to bounce to it though. There’s too much going on, and your core bass and kick are fighting for room in the mix. This is from NZ right? Whatever. Over it. [4]

Stevie Kaye: Classy uptempo R&B that sounds like the most amazing future shock in context – while we’ve had a decent run of male-fronted R&B tracks with a contemporary aesthetic, it’s more common for our female-fronted R&B to err on the side of soul/funk. Emmanuel Ensink’s generous production switches effortlessly from maximalist rush to paring things back to shine a spotlight on the vocals or strings. More like this, please. [7]

The great thing about a song like this is how it has so much relevancy to New Zealand. You can tell that this song was made in New Zealand just by listening to the lyrics, and that’s not always a bad thing. At least not here anyway. There’s talk of the DPB, getting paid by WINZ, and dodging the bullet when your dole officer tries to make you look for a job. Then it’s all juxtaposed right next to these loopy stories about doing all this stupid shit so they can just keep doing what they’re doing. Like they say “this is just how it is when you’re broke.” I guess sometimes good things come out of not having much money. [Download it here]